Friday, April 9, 2010

Behold the Almighty Beet Burger

Beet burgers??? HELL YES! Of everything I've cooked over the years for my friends and family, these beet burgers are the most requested, praised, and quickly devoured. These are so damn good that I challenge any meat eater to honestly tell me they aren't delicious. If I see any such comment, I'll come to your house and eat my first real hamburger in 15 years. I'm that sure.

This is one of the few recipes that will appear on this blog that is not my own. But it is so good, I just have to share it. The recipe is adapted from a wonderful cookbook called Recipes from America’s Small Farms. It is a phenomenal book that has tons of great recipes and advice for eating locally and seasonally. I can't say enough good things about this cookbook. Buy. It. Now.

Heat small, dry frying pan on medium heat. When hot, add sesame seeds. Stir almost continuously until seeds are toasted and brown, but not burned. Remove immediately and transfer to large mixing bowl.

Add all other ingredients to bowl. Mix well.

Coat a cookie sheet really well with cooking spray. Form mixture into patties of normal hamburger size and shape. Cook 25-30 minutes or until cooked through. Remove, let cool a minute, and eat like regular burgers.

Talking Dirty:

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.

~Harriet van Horne

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

~Voltaire

Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili.

~The dying words of Kit Carson

The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star.

~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.

~Chinese proverb

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.

~Epicurus

He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.

~Henry David Thoreau

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

~M. F. K. Fisher

Did you ever stop to taste a carrot? Not just eat it, but taste it? You can't taste the beauty and energy of the earth in a Twinkie.

~Astrid Alauda

Great food is like great sex. The more you have, the more you want.

~Gael Greene

All sorrows are less with bread.

~Miguel de Cervantes,Don Quixote

A good cook is the peculiar gift of the gods. He must be a perfect creature from the brain to the palate, from the palate to the finger's end.

~Walter Savage Landor

Good food ends with good talk.

~Geoffrey Neighor

A meal, however simple, is a moment of intersection. It is at once the most basic, the most fundamental, of our life's activities, maintaining the life of our bodies; shared with others it can be an occasion of joy and communion, uniting people deeply.

~Elise Boulding

There's nothing like good food, good wine, and a bad girl.

~Anonymous

The joys of the table belong equally to all ages, conditions, countries and times; they mix with all other pleasures, and remain the last to console us for their loss.

~Antheleme Brillet-Savar

Serve this dish with much too much wine for your guests, along with some cooked green vegetables and a huge salad. You will be famous in about half an hour.

~Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet

Olive oil? Asparagus? If your mother wasn't so fancy, we could shop at the gas station like normal people.